GAZA BIENNALE – THE ISTANBUL PAVILION features the work of over 50 artists from Gaza, Palestine, and beyond. The exhibition unfolds across two floors of Depo Istanbul during the 18th International Istanbul Biennial and is curated by House of Taswir in collaboration with the artists of the Gaza Biennale.
In 2024, in a breathtaking act of artistic defiance—and in collaboration with the Forbidden Museum of Al Risan mountain near Ramallah—artists in Gaza launched the Gaza Biennale from a beach under siege. Since then, art institutions worldwide have begun hosting Gaza Biennale Pavilions—acts of diasporic solidarity that replace national representations with a transnational practice of artistic affinity and alliance.
House of Taswir is honored to host The Istanbul Pavilion at Depo Istanbul in close collaboration with artists who live and work in Gaza. Due to the ongoing genocidal war, the forced famine and closed borders devastating Gaza and Palestine, most Gazan artists are unable to travel, and their works cannot physically cross borders. In response, the Istanbul Pavilion—together with the artists—re-imagines exhibition practices through co-creation, ghost-writing, tele-conversations, and collaborative installations.
Since its inception, in gestures of overwhelming generosities, more than twenty international artists have joined the Gaza Biennale Istanbul Pavilion by donating works in support of the artists. We are proud to show works by Alfredo Jaar, Walid Raad, Elisabeth Masé, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Furkan Akhan, Khaled Tanji, Ghayath Almadhoun, Christine Gedeon, Michael Barenboim, and more.
Featured formats include video portraits, mobile phone dialogues, wall writings, a table of scholars, a poetry festival, and the emergence of a Museum of Affinities and of Distant Collaborations. A performance program of film screenings, poetry evenings, and in-situ conversation with the Gazan artists will be held during the entire seven weeks of the Biennale.
“No war can stop the dreams of dreamers, and no mechanism of domination extinguish the light in the hearts and minds of creators.”
— Gaza Biennale Collective Statement, 2024
Venue:
Depo/ Tütün Deposu
Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12
Tophane 34425 İstanbul
www.depoistanbul.net
Concept: A.S. Bruckstein Çoruh / House of Taswir with The Istanbul Pavilion Team
Release date: Istanbul, August 3, 2025
Press contact:
Reine Chahine / House of Taswir / www.taswir.org/ [email protected] / www.gazabiennale.org
